Italy seeking EU-Africa migration deal

ISTANBUL – Italy's foreign minister says his country "would appreciate" an agreement between the European Union and African countries similar to the one reached with Turkey to curb migration flows across the Aegean into Greece.

Speaking in Ankara on Friday, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni praised the migration deal struck between the EU and Turkey in March, saying "we need to have similar agreement to solve, or at least manage, migration flows from Africa."

More than a million people reached Europe in 2015, with thousands of migrants drowning on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

The EU-Turkey agreement stipulates migrants arriving on Greek islands from the Turkish coast as of March 20 would be detained and sent back. For every Syrian returned, another Syrian in Turkey will be relocated to a European country.